12-Year-Old Makes Video for Humane Society

An aspiring young filmmaker made an online video for the Baltimore Humane Society that drew more than 1,000 views in its first week.

“I love animals and I wanted to find a way to help, and my favorite hobby is filmmaking,” said 12-year-old Max Sternlicht, whose mother volunteers at the Reisterstown no-kill shelter.

Max, who will be in sixth grade at the Gilman School in the fall, spent about a week at the shelter, taking about four hours of footage each day.

“I had an outline in my head and tried to follow it as much as I can,” he said. It took about a month of after-camp editing to get the video together.

“I’ve been getting a lot of friendly feedback,” he said. “Someone from the Middle East commented on my video a few days ago, so that was pretty amazing. Someone from the other side of the world liked my video.”

Max, who also sold lemon sticks at a stand at last year’s DogFest to raise money for the Humane Society, plans to film a video at DogFest this September.

The young filmmaker has been making movies since kindergarten, when he started filming his toys on camera. In first grade, he started making videos with his friends dressing up like Star Wars characters, and by third grade he had learned how to make films with Lego stop-motion. He made a Gilman-centric music video with Pharrell Williams’ song “Happy,” called “Gilman Happy,” which took first place in the Gilman Film Festival. He’s also written screenplays in recent years.

“I either want to be a filmmaker or cardiologist,” Max said. “I haven’t decided which one.”

The Baltimore Humane Society, located on Nicodemus Road in Reisterstown, is an independent, no-kill shelter, which offers veterinary care, a pet cemetery and grief support services.